Ginger Hotels, the no-frill hotel subsidiary of the Tatas' hospitality arm Indian Hotels, is planning to make a cumulative investment of Rs 300 crore in 2007-08 for setting up 25 hotels across the country. Ginger currently has six hotels and would inaugurate the seventh one in Durgapur in West Bengal on Wednesday.

Prabhat Pani, chief executive officer of Roots Corporation Ltd (RCL), which operates Ginger, said: "The investment for opening 25 hotels would be about Rs 300 crore and the hotels would be functional by the end of the next financial year."

A budget hotel, which typically has 100 rooms and is built on 45,000 sq ft, costs about Rs 11-12 crore, excluding land price. Ginger is also looking at providing higher accommodation of around 150 rooms in its proposed hotel in Panjim, Goa.

"We are bullish about Ginger as there exists a huge opportunity in terms of branded accommodation. We intend to have presence in tier-I, II, III cities, up-coming business locations, IT parks and special economic zones," said Uday Narain, chief operating officer of RCL.

In West Bengal, the company is planning to open hotels in Kolkata, Siliguri, Haldia and Kharagpur. Durgapur would be the second offering in the eastern region after Bhubaneswar.

RCL has signed a memorandum of understanding with the West Bengal government's investment arm, the West Bengal Industrial Development Corp, for facilitation of land.

Other destinations in the eastern region which Ginger is looking to expand in are Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, Agartala in Tripura, Guwahati in Assam, and Paradip and Jharsaguda in Orissa.

The company is also planning to bid for Indian Railways' proposed private participation in Yatri Niwas upgradation. It has already been awarded the railway's Yatri Niwas in New Delhi in the first round of bidding.